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The author attempts a classification of the more usual types of crimes of passion in accordance with the degree of participation of the super-ego
in the criminal act. An ætiological factor common to them all, however, are the feelings of inferiority which arise in the ego in consequence of (1) the censorship exercised by the individual's super-ego or (2) by the collective super-ego or (3) direct interference by the environment. All this results in a state of tension and anxiety, a situation in which the ego seeks to compensate the injury to its narcissism. Libidinal energy accumulates in the ego, and the exaltation of the ego which ensues may have the result that aggression is directed outwards against the agents responsible for the prohibition, or against the rival or love object, or even attacks the subject's ego itself. Crimes of passion revolve around narcissism, and aim at rehabilitating the ego in the eyes of the super-ego, individual or collective. It is not surprising to discover in them a certain parallelism with the narcissistic psychoses: paranoia, mania and melancholia.